Edited by Sheilarae Carpentier Lau

The 1996
Speleo Digest

This 514-page compendium of American caving in 1996, containing over 300
articles by over 200 authors, is a font of wisdom for cavers everywhere.
Have a huge ceiling to measure and distance triangulation is getting you
down? The Party Machine can help! Read all about this alternative way to
measure ceiling heights in caves (and, in the same article, what to do when
the Imodium you took doesn't work fast enough).
The 1996 Speleo Digest contains descriptions and maps of 299
caves,
most of them new discoveries, from across the country and around the world.
Imagine the horror of exploring Millipede, Groundhog Carcass, Cockroach and
Dead Goat Caves and empathize with the dashed hopes of the surveyors of
Fixin'-to-Die Cave, Illusion Pit and Still-a-Short Cave (or, for a more
pleasant read, speculate about the naming of Bat Love and Climax Caves).
Perhaps the articles about Baby Head Voodoo Cave and Cave Of The Not So Very
Distant Shoes will pique your imagination as well!
Fear not, we didn't forget to include Lechuguilla, and all the
cave art
and cartoons you'd expect in such a tome, as well as entire chapters on
archaeology, biology, conservation, caving equipment, geology, history,
hydrology, safety, lighting, locating caves, photography, surveying and
vertical caving.
The ever-popular fiction and humor chapters may be the biggest
ever
this year with a cavers' songbook and powerful writing on the experiences
that bind us together -- those we seek and those we fear in the depths of
our souls.
Brand new this year is a chapter on paraspeleology. Want to know
the
*real* reason caves are dark? The truth is out there in the 1996 Speleo Digest.